EA press conference: the giant shows fresh, compelling content

Electronic Arts' E3 press conference saw heavy use of the word "new," but the …

The stone-faced, corporate EA of yesteryear, stuck in a state of perpetual stagnation, is no more. That was the sentiment that the industry's leading company wanted attendees to walk away with after its E3 press conference. EA's John Riccitello and his band of countless subsidiary heads, including Valve's Gabe Newell, Bioware's Greg Zeschuck, and id's John Carmack, offered a fresher, friendlier, more creative, and game-focused image in their rhetoric this year.

A warm and receptive crowd packed the Orpheum Theater as EA ran through a boatload of titles due for various platforms and from numerous developers. Here are the standouts:

SimAnimals: The next step after MySims, this Wii and DS title due in January 2009 applies the simplified experience to nature, as you control an ecosystem full of wild animals and play out the lives of these creatures, either abiding by or perverting the course of nature.

Sims 3: Though no game play was shown for the next big iteration of the famous Sims franchise, the early teaser trailer gave away a few hints of what's to come. A more fleshed-out and cohesive cityscape with a variety of areas, including shopping malls and beaches, plays host to deeper and more heavily customizable character interaction. The game also supports the newly-launched Sims 2 in-game content shop, which allows you to fill out the content of your world via microtransactions.

Dead Space: The real stunner of the session, this survival horror title will be hitting the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 21, and it looked fantastic. Sharp graphics, an amazing user interface, and some solid third-person run-and-gunning mesh well with the unsettling "abandoned space-station" setting.

Spore: Will Wright easily won the best speaker award, dispensing some ridiculous statistics like the fact that Creature Creators created a number of species equivalent to the total that exist on Earth in 17 days, giving us a quotient of 0.38 God in terms used by Spore fans. Soon, we will achieve deity status together.

NBA Live 09: With daily roster and stat updates over Live for free, a brand new DNA system which totally changes how players will approach the strategic complexities of the game, and a much more dynamic and fluid control system, NBA Live 09 looks to buck the trend of annual recycling of sports titles by EA Sports.

Mirror's Edge: We saw recycled Game Developers Conference in-game footage from the PS3 and a new, visually-stunning trailer of this free-running adventure game. It's a beauty, but little new information was revealed.

Mirror's Edge was met with approval from the crowd after a gorgeous new trailer

Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09 All Play: Nearly 1:1 motion control and a host of mini-games make this one of the most fully-featured and polished Wii golf titles around. We were skeptical of the All Play label in the past, but this looks good.

Dragon Age Origins: The first, somewhat generic looking trailer was shown for Origins. Orcs, demons, and humans collided in a full battle outside a castle. The graphics were particularly attractive, though the uncanny valley may have reared its ugly head in the Helms Deep-like scene. Little else was announced.

Need for Speed, Tiger Woods iPhone: The iPhone is a huge focus for EA Mobile now, and the company is planning major iterations of some of its key franchises for Apple's sleek device, including the likes of Need for Speed and Tiger Woods.

Left for Dead: Almost no gameplay footage was shown of Valve's upcoming co-op zombie fest, but Newell did run down some interesting features, including details of the game's unique "Director" AI, which frames the action and adjusts it according to a party's performance. Newell suggested the following equation: Narrative and emotional impact of Half-Life + Social features of Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 + co-op = Left for Dead.

Rage: id's big Tech5 engine showcase, Rage looked incredibly nice. Driving, action, and exploring are the key features of the title, and we were shown a new trailer that demonstrated some pretty brutal enemies. The title still remains largely shrouded in mystery.

With an increasing number of peripheral studios and its unique EA Partners program having really kicked into gear by bringing in the likes of id Software, EA is poised to continue its dominance of the industry in a big way. But, if anything came out of this press conference, it was a general sense of excitement around the company. This isn't the same EA that charged for Godfather cheats not too long ago—there are some genuinely exciting and fresh games here. Or at least that's what we're led to believe.